AK news Legendary sled dog musher and fearless Alaskan character Susan Butcher just died, after a long and awful battle with leukemia. She was only 51. That woman was an incredible inspiration to my whole generation of uppity Alaskan girls. She pissed everyone off, occasionally seemed capable of relating exclusively to canines, and just generally kicked a whole lot of ass. When I was a kid, a popular t-shirt (originally inspired by Libby Riddles but fully institutionalized by Butcher's seemingly unstoppable streak) read: "Alaska--Where Men are Men and Women Win the Iditarod." Damn straight. The note at the end of the story about her cabin in the White Mountains and the team of "lovingest" dogs waiting for her there really messed me up. What a shitty, shitty, totally unfair bummer.  ¶ 8:57 PM